valve switches

Doug calls to let me know what was up with his phone bill.   He even went by Dad's to try to find a copy of the most recent one (it'd gone up a few hundred and was not making sense).   Thankfully, that's resolved:)

So he changes some lightbulbs (oh, right, Dad had about 6 he wanted me to do, being we don't want him standing on chairs to change them, I'm thankful Doug could then), and asks me why I didn't turn off the valve.   Valve?  Valve for what?   Oh, the water pipe that's dripping.   Sigh.   Ya mean we could have stopped this?  It's dark now so he didn't do it.  SO it'll drip until tomorrow, could have been turned off YESTERDAY if he'd told me this when I talked w/ him.   He didn't understand, thought it only dripped if it'd been used.  

I swear, sometimes I wish I'd spent more years with my stepfather, also, and learned some things from him, cuz my dad, who taught me many wonderful things certainly, knows nothing about home maintenance or car maintenance......   so I grew up, not knowing each thing has a daggone valve.   That's all this would have taken.   (Making mental note to bring some kind of, hm, wrench I suppose, to work on this tomorrow...... UGH.)

Oh, well, I wish Doug'd unclogged the toilet, or did he?, but at least now I know what to do for one temporary fix, eh?!

Election Comments

Just a few quick ones.   I had hoped to join in helping in advance but had no time, which is likely obvious to everyone else, but hey, I had hopes:)

Well, WOW!   24 extra seats........ and waiting on, um, some state, where the guy pressed the wrong button or something, hey, he admitted it and people can deal appropriately at least.    It's amazing, as if it's been SO many years coming........   Chaffee's father, the late Chaffee, of RI was a big supporter of (an organization I'm involved with), and being RI is such a hugely Democratic state, that they've stayed in those many years show how good at least his dad has been.  Amazing that 62% (give/take) support how son Chaffee has been doing, and yet don't like W. Bush badly enough to vote Democratic, anyway.   It took some years and a lot of deaths and damage, but wow, maybe the nation can get back on appropriate track again:)  Hopeful.

 

I was voting "locally," more so, being our Congressman (Chris Van Hollen) is pretty secure and stayed that way, albeit our retiring Senator Sarbanes had a vacant seat that ended up going Democratic (Ben Cardin) :)    I'm told we were one of the states to watch because of it, but really, state politics seemed to take precedence for us -- THRILLED just THRILLED that "Bobby" let's throw tantrums and send out false campaign fliers, etc., plus I don't like his politics, either, Ehrlich OUT as governor.   Martin O'Malley, Mayor of B'more, has won.   I'm really really glad:)

 

Some of my other candidates have won, also, but it's harder to tell as the news media seems so very focused on the national issues for it.  

 

Raining, pouring, but, a good day indeed!

 

Side note -- got a "I vote" sticker, and in Spanish, and voting electronically via touch screens, which worked beautifully as they have in the past, too, at least, in my county!, with thee longest wait since the Presidential one, i.e., 15 minutes in and out and done:)   Yes, the high schoolers had a bake sale, but I'd eaten breakfast and sweets didn't sound good at that moment.....   I did wish to support them.  Oh, well.  

 

M at feis / Si' first feis

More on this later, or at least that's the plan, but -- for now --

She did really well -- coming in second place AGAIN for both slip jig and treble jig -- this time there were 29 girls in the treble jig and she got 2nd so that is fantastic!   Except she needs 1st to move up (to prizewinner) and yadda yadda so she's frustrated but she needs to be proud, too.   And two 4th places, which is good, too, these are large groups at this very chaotic feis.  (Thee most chaotic one I've ever visited and I've been to this dance school's feis a few times and this thee worst.)   

The figures involved groups of dancers, and will be done at the "big" competition in December -- they did it here, also, as practice, getting 3rd in the 4-hand reel, and 2nd in the 8-hand (out of 9 teams?).   So, well, with more practice needed:)   The judges turned them all mirror-image so it confused the dancers, and the teachers are now verifying rules and such to have the girls practice appropriately for the bigger dance.

Had the results from the feis 2 weeks ago e-mailed to me earlier today, speaking of electronics, all in individualized chart format.   Yep, second place in slip jig and treble jig then, too:)   Judges comments were included, and would have been helpful for Sundays feis.  Oh, well.  Must say, I've not received e-mail results before, and it just adds yet another nicely done, professional touch to this feis.   It's a time-suck to get there and back, but otherwise, thee best one I've ever gone to.

 

M had fun, though, so that's good:)  (Si seemed to as well, and I even got a photo of the two of them.)

 

Updating with the following:

 

Ceili:   just found out, M's half-sister is going to be performing along with M now. yet again, sigh, M is with C this weekend and it's possible they'll only bring M to her shows, if Si can do like M and also dance.   The cute 4-year old beginning dancing, sure, and she's a sweet girl who wants to be just like M, but it is annoying to me that they don't let M do things, unless it'd benefitSi.
Ceili:  okay, vent over:)
Friend:  that sucks! 
Ceili::  yeah
Ceili:  if they'd been supportive of M all along, I'd feel differently.  M's happy cuz it means she can go, and Si is adoring M, and 8 years apart, not as if Si is taking over M's dances
Ceili I find this all out today, so somehow, to do laundry for the weekend, found out from the school website. (helps me to know if I should pack M's things, plan to attend and all)
Friend: Geez.  Unfair to M.  I don't understand how they can do that
Ceili:  I don't, either.  
Ceili::  but, life goes on 

Friend:  Seems as if it will be nice someday, though, to be close to a sister, even if 1/2 sister
Friend: Nice for them to have each other
Ceili:  right, and I really do hope that they are.   I took a photo of the two of them at Si's first feis (competition) on Sunday.   C refused to talk to / with me, even when I offered him information, he turned around and asked someone else for it.   whatever.  

 

I had told C that Si's competitions scores were posted, and did he know where the scoreroom was.   He looked at me, looked away and asked the person on the other side of him and walked away.   He's new at this stuff, so I was simply trying to help.  I can't take it personally, really, it's something in him I suppose.   All these years later and we can't be civil?

 

Maybe C gets upset that both his girls are in Irish stepdancing, and he's Danish?   C used to fuss at me sometimes that M was dancing this only because I'm Irish (and Scottish but hey), but, really, this is HER passion:)  She got ME into it.   Or, maybe?  I don't know.   He even insisted on havingthe e/o weeknight be the night that M and I were taking a ceili/set dance class together.   Of course, it can now allow me to attend the later class and go out with the adults once in a while, but, at the time, she and I were enjoying our special class time together, and she enjoyed the others and the dances.   That was how M started Irish dancing, and I started it with her, so she could do it.

 

It was nice that C and Sh stayed there, obviously also with Si, to watch M for a few of her dancers.   There was a schedule conflict going on, one stage going slowly, another one going more quickly.   Another parent and I were checking back and forth with the two stages for our girls and any others, a third stage in close time schedule.   M and her friend ended up having the second stage's competition starting before the one scheduled earlier.   I realized C, Sh, Si, were looking at the earlier-scheduled stage, at the time M and others walked onto stage for their lineup, so I told him, "M is up next at that stage."   When M moved forward to start dancing, C hadn't turned around, "As in, right now."  As I mentioned before, it was chaotic.   The stage assistants very nice, just chaotic.   I also find it difficult to differentiate noises accurately when bouncing around a gymnasium, or on a speaker phone.   Si may have started getting bored, or restless, not sure, but they did leave IIRC, before either figures dance competition began.  

 

Si, a very young beginner first feis dancer, so hence had one of the earliest time slots.   She danced for a musician I've seen at many feisiana's, and chatted during relaxation time at the Rhythm of Ireland Feis.   Si was the last of 5 dancers.   They go out in two's, and if not even, the last dancer will go out and dance solo.   The first two danced, one of the first two a young girl I sometimes play dance with while M and this girls older sister practice for Oircheatas figures.   Great cuts I'd not noticed on her before, considering her age and inexperience; I'm told she forgot her step.   The next two danced, and in this group also is a girl from M's dance school, doing a fine job.   When Si saw those two motioned forward to dance, and her left back at the line, she stepped up to start dancing as well.  Very understandable, and the stage assistant gently had Si step back, until her turn.   Si danced quite nicely, even tied for first!!! yeah, with the other young girl I mentioned.   Si bowed very deeply and gracefully, as if mimicing M all these years.  Both the other girls from the school had been in a feis before.  

 

Mom and Bob were both there, too, for as long as they could handle.   After, which runs later each year as M moves up in levels, and because for some reason, results took about an hour in line (that has NEVER happened before, so I'll assume it's a one-time glitch), we enjoyed my "birthday" dinner which Bob had made, and some time together with them, too.

 

It was a long day, but a good one:)

Tags: feis, Irish stepdancing

electronic messages and technology

"bring floopy" M texts to me 2 minutes before her school starts.   I'm thinking floopy, floopy, is this some stuffed bunny rabbit?  OH, the floppy disc she has her latest report on.   Now, I COULD have had it to her before school started, if she felt her father would allow her to call me, instead of having to wait until she's dropped off at school and then while in the locker room, secretly text me.......  actually, they are allowed cell phones before and after school.   I only got myself a cell phone so that she could have one; it's paid off several times she's felt a need to hide to contact me from her dad's.   Sigh, she shouldn't have to go through that. 

M remembered she was to have her Paul Revere monologue typed for Monday, and printed out.   The cartridges for our printer, last I checked a few years ago, were over $30. a cartridge, ah, nope, sorry, would rather eat this week or otherwise spend that amount of money per cartridge even.   The monologue gets typed, in Wordperfect 5 (told you this was old), and I copy it into an e-mail I send to the teacher, Mo.    M goes off to school also with a disc of the Wordperfect document, happy to report later that it converted nicely into Word which is what's at school.   Mo, bless her heart, told M not to worry about us not having a printer at home, Mo will just get M a memory stick that M can take back and forth.   I knew Mo would understand, M is happy, but lol, only because I have a younger technologically more with it boss do I have a clue what a memory stick is.   I told M that I doubted it'd work, checked the sides of the hard drive and the monitor, nope, no appropriate-looking holes, also verifying with my boss what this is.   Yep, a bit like a smaller thing he plugs into his computer each day to take home data with at night, as if an additional disc drive (called a flash drive or gig stick or, apparently a memory stick).   Really cool:)   NOT workable on our ancient pc, however, it having been manufactured back in the late dinosaur age of computers.  

So today, 2 days later, I find the floppy disc after I'm texted, but not positive it's on THAT disc, and bring another, checking them quickly.   Ugh, "the" disc keeps prompting a message that it's unformatted, do I wish to format it now?   Hmmm, a bunch of stuff on there, I'm positive.  Or, it was.   I clean up another disc I'd grabbed and copy the e-mail body onto the disc, in Word:)   M was happy when she saw me, just done with lunch into the afternoon activity, "I'm going to drink beer today!"   She then leans in closely and whispers, "It's really worcestershire sauce."   (Somehow, the two taste nothing alike to ME but hey.)   She's wearing some apron or cotton dress which I'm happy to realize is a costume and not what she was sent in, lol.  I tell her what happened to the first disc, and how it's on the other one... "In WORD?  Oh, I want THIS one then."   lol   Not clear how her presentation and monologue on Paul Revere has now become her joining with others but in female clothing pretending to drink ale.   Interpretive history apparently.

I talk with Beth about the cd's and M texting me.   She's noticed more the latest item that many at Gallaudet seem to be using, from all the recent news there.   Beth uses a pager now, but was curious what M and I use.   Basic cell phones for us.   I really liked the full keyboard phones I saw while helping chaperone a school trip to Gallaudet a couple years ago.   Heck, they had video telephone booths, how cool is that?!  Beth really needs something better, also.   Besides, then she could just text me instead of needing a computer (she has a cochlear implant but otherwise, essentially deaf.  I even have a duel TTY/TDY and regular phone as our main phone at home, if the TTY/TDY portion is needed).

Doug calls me twice, the first time as I'm pulling into M's school, then later when he got online, trying to decipher his phone bill.   Dad's phone is on the same account and Doug's been paying for it, but there's a problem with the latest bill.   THAT's why he calls?   I talked w/ Doug from Dad's house just yesterday, and Doug had completely forgotten the plumbing problem.   Heck, today he was reasking me details of the whole phone thing.   He has a lot going on, the phone details are forgettable as he basically knows I haven't touched his, and took care of Dad's.   But, wtf is up with the plumber?  ARGH.  

I'm still talking with Doug as I pull into the grocery store to get Dad his groceries.   It's "my" store, cheaper prices overall and I'm hopeful it'll mean a less expensive bill for him, plus, it's closer to my office.   I've not looked for these items before in this store, however, and it happens to be a store organized in a way that sure seems illogical to me, heck, bread is in two completely different sections even, and canned fruit.   The cashier is real nice and real slow.   It's almost as if I hear the minutes ticking by in my head.   Chatting with her seems to speed her and keep her, and me, happier.   Pay for M's and my groceries, fine, go to pay for Dad's, not authorized.   The cashier tells me that on her screen, it says overlimit, so that could mean just for that day.   Interpreting this, hmm, did someone get access, did his mortgage check clear electronically and they are counting that against his daily limit?  "Do you have another form of payment, say, a check?," she offers.   I smile and just tell her that I'll pay for it on my own checkcard, then, and I do.  

Last month, a couple weeks of Dad's groceries I paid for, but after he got paid, I did cash those checks.   I can't afford to stay doing this, however.   I check his account online -- the mortgage cleared, gas payment cleared, etc.   About $10 left yikes and $12. check outstanding for the newspaper, so I'll add money but gosh.   I'm thinking, food stamps, other assistance?   Doug calls back about mail of Doug's sent to Dad's house "Why didn't someone call me about this?" well, sheesz, I'm telling him now, right, less than a week later, and it's not urgent and what is up with a plumber.......   I find his mail, and the forms I'd gotten for Dad for assistance.   Doug's ready to have Dad and him split the phone account into two, "he'd only have to mail in a payment."   Um, no, Doug, I will have to pay it for him online, so if you cancel your portion, change the passcode on the overall account to something I can remember........  

Dad calls and we talk about what's going on, and when he gets his social security check again.   We'll still write to his mortgage company -- it's one of the predatory ones -- his check was mailed the last week of the month, as I didn't get there the 3rd week to put it into the mail, and yet Nov. 2 they sent a notice for foreclosure for not having gotten October's payment, yet it was cashed and cleared.   This is ridiculous.  I'm hopeful that the payments will go down, too, once the property tax credit is applied for 2006, too.   I wanted it set up electronically.....

Dad wants to wait on calling a plumber now, as he has no money to pay for one.   I wish I could.  I'll have to contact my church tomorrow, I suppose.  

I'll have to bath Dad myself, too, for if he showers, the water will leak into the kitchen below as it was doing yesterday.   I want him in decent shoes and socks even, which yes is connected as I'm thinking bathing his legs and feet.   Last night, I walked around the department store for a bit, not feeling a needto buy, I was wearing my new birthday top, just looking at the new displays up for Christmas sales after paying on my bill.   Checking out girls long pants eh, not sure M would like this poor selection, albeit girls holiday dresses are 40 or 50% off already and on a Tuesday which isn't a typical sales day.   I check out tops to match the skirt M and my mother got me, which is theee exact same one I bought this summer while in Maine but decided to return, lol, not that I've gotten around to that yet, so guess it looks like me.   I pondered over shoes for Dad.  He says he's a size 11.5 but some only go up to size 12, so wouldn't size 11.5 be big?  I don't know anything about mens shoes.   This one doesn't have any arch support, hmm, neither does that, or, wait, is it my mother or father who has a high arch?   Heck if I know, other than that both M and I do.   One pair is real nice, dock shoes so easy to slip on and off yet look decent.  I find myself rubbing the leather........   then wake up to reality.   These are light brown LEATHER, as in, not washable.  UGH.  Another day.

Now, he has no money well, I could charge them.   What did we ever do with electronic gadgets?   Drink real ale and not pay nearly $4. a gallon for cows milk, and snail mail our communications, I suppose.  Oh, and Dad hit with bounce fees.  Not now.

more on getting older

I had copied into this journal bits I'd written on a message board, for a thread started by Vicki asking, basically, for "words of wisdom" in life.    This is her response to, basically, my last entry here also posted on that board:

This is a centerpiece in the scrapbook and here is the photo which accentuates the post. This photo is the lovely depiction of a heart which is not inflicted of bitterness.  It focuses upon  the proof of love.
 

That I did always love,I bring thee proof:That till I lovedI did not love enough. 

This is that photogragh that was captured from the camera's eye...  it is that mindset which promotes love to replace any hate... and a message of hopefulness to loose the binding of hopelessness...  nothing is worse than the deafening foolishness and the blind hate.  Life is too precious to not reflect the beauty of blessings and even bitterweet memories...  The photo does exhibit love...

 

Thanks so much for the post.

 

Vicki

 

And this is the "ancient birthday / being jaded" thread on another board and comments from some others on there which I found interesting:

 

And my eyes have opened to may differant things. -- ??

I guess that is what they mean by the older you get the wiser you get.  I am 39. -- ??

I just hope I can be as happy as I used to be one day. -- Nomad (I think)

I am happier in my 40's than any time in my life and mainly because I have learned to love myself for who I am and not dwell on what I am not and not to dwell on the things that I can't change. In my teens I was too worried about what I was going to be, in my 20's I was trying to be someone I was not and be a person someone else wanted me to be, in my 30's I dreaded all the mistakes I had made and thought hitting40 would be the end for me. Oddly enough I look better than I did in my 20's and feel younger now than I did back then. Happiness comes from within you and no one can make you happy and you have to find it on your own. Plus priorities change as we age, all the little things don't matter anymore now and I see the big picture. - Pass

 

So, as you get older, perhaps reach another milestone, perhaps not, how do YOU look at life now, as compared to your earlier days?

 

I did take a look in the mirror last night -- yesterday was a tired Monday after a full weekend -- if I have a good half of my lift or hopefully even more left to go, my hair will have been brown with a touch of red just a small portion, childbearing years over, my bones, my teeth, my skin, well, my skin renews but doesn't renew by looking brand new and youthful again, I need to be sure I'm taking care of this physical self of mine.   The rest?  I like to think is getting better:)   Drowning half the time in all I "must" do, but learning as I go, too, I hope.

to not become jaded

Two birthday packages arrived for me today:)   Thanks, BJ!, muwaaaa, thanks, sweetie:)   and Thanks, Beth and Len!    Still on a high from my presents, and seeing Missy M, I stopped enroute back from lunch and splurged by treating myself to a chai tea latte at Starbuck's.  (Not clear why grande = medium and not grand / large, and tall isn't tall but small but whatever, it's a fun treat I don't get often.)

Beth and Len sent me a double-disc, ha, almost said album, compilation of Beatles music.  I do believe I have this same set on 8-track.  (Yes, seriously, even if I've given away my 8-track player to Bob some years back.)    I'd talked with Beth the other day when Len turned 64 and she asked me what I wanted cd-wise....   so many great Beatles songs, yet "mine" is In My Life, the one my late cousin Dougie "gave" to me.   We'd stay up late at night and also spend our summer days listening nonstop to Beatles songs.    Very exciting for me to get both packages!, and Daisy didn't even wake up! when I stopped by to pick up the riding pants M had packed but I'd removed, and she wanted........ (and the packages by the door).

M looked a bit sad, or perhaps just tired? when I dropped them off as promised, in her barn locker, but she heard our truck and came to see me.  Twice she tells me, "I don't know who is picking me up, and I don't know when they're coming."   She had to wait the full carpool pickup time before trying to hang at the barn, even if I suggested she just call them.   We got to chat for a bit, I gave her a hug and kiss twice as I did wish to leave before Sh showed up, if it was Sh coming for M, so it didn't appear interfering (albeit, who cares, I can see my child).   I was glad, too, as this morning wasn't ideal.   M was up ready early, at first wanting to join me at the polls and then changing her mind, thankfully, just remembering late that she had her bibliography notes due, so I fussed while trying to help her and us not be late.   Then realized, she needs more organizational help, isn't the planner working?, ugh......  fine at our parting but still prefer a nice conversation before not seeing her or being "allowed" to talk w/ her for a bit.

I don't take a moment with her for granted.   I hope no one married with their children in their care all the time takes his/her child(ren) for granted, i.e., no one who isn't under constant scrutiny like many of us with kids in split households, but I know, every moment, is a moment given.   Nor with anyone whom I care about.   Dougie said he wouldn't live to see 30 years old, and inside, I breathed a happy sigh of relief when he did, but he didn't make it to 40 years old, so I rather toast to him, too, when I reach another birthday as if also for him who'd have turned 45 this past July.   My mother, my father, even my brother and stepfather, could have died by now, and my precious Grandma has, too.  Some people move into our lives for a short time, some longer, some we're glad move on, lol, admittedly:)   Glad for the conversation with two of my friends today, and the one with BJ.......

This is part of a conversation from another area.

E asks me:  "how old are you??? just curious?"
>
>I won't say when on a public board, but I've recently turned "ancient" according to my daughter who claims I'm now egads, middle-aged.  (I'm 45 years old.)  I tried to tell her that I fully intend to live to 100, so I have 5 more years to go before I'm middle-aged, but she didn't buy it:)
-- Sun
>
>
>oh wow...I would have guessed you were in your 20s! Although...I guess I don't know how old your daughter is...that would make a difference. lol
>>E
 
Um, yeah, considering she's been 12 years old since this past summer:)  Do I want to know why you'd have guessed in my 20's?!
-- Sun

 
It's nothing bad at all...I assure you! You're just so sweet and nice to everyone...you don't seem as jaded as most people are by the time they're in their 30s or 40s. :-)
-- E

I'm glad she didn't think I was being immature and hence THAT's why she thought I was younger:)  I think, instead, that what works for ME, is yes, to deal with things when needed, acknowledge the pain or hurt or work or whatever, but if someone's wronged me, to work towards letting it go.  Don't hold in the anger and let it eat me up inside, don't stay reacting to it, for then it still effects me.  Stay living and loving life, each moment as an Oprah quote talks of.  My mother was in the ER on Friday, and she's "alright" now (being monitored / trying to determine what triggers the irregularities), but she could have gone.  Even though she and I view life so differently from each other and it can be a struggle at times to deal with each other, we both try, we both do love each other, sometimes even enjoying each other, too:)   Letting go of the things that are little petty things, remembering fondly the things that are wonderful little blessings in life instead:) to me, helps keep me more sane.  I don't wish to be jaded or bitter or super distrustful.  I'd rather embrace peace and the joy of life and each other.   

 

Which all sounds sappy as hell I suppose.    Protect myself, sure, but not to the expense of not feeling and not living.   Sometimes, withdrawal is good and even healthy, just not forever.   Of course I've been hurt, and I may again.   I believe love is worth the risk, loving my grandmother and having that close relationship, even if it hurt more when she died, the familial love, or loving a man and the romantic love, even if one was shipped out to sea, known he would be, for example, some years ago.   Share the moments we do have in this life together even if it's known they will be limited.  It's too short to close oneself down and get too jaded or cynical, IMHO.   I'd rather believe someone's story and take the risk that it's true and I'm being conned, not spam stuff mind, then not be of emotional support and it end up, their story was true, they needed just a touch of kindness.

 

This is the Oprah Winfrey quote I read today (and yes, Uncle Billy didn't need to be my guardian angel any more after my Grandma died, too, and perhaps I have others up there in heaven as well)  Okay, sorry for the sappy, I'm going to love the cd's and the gift BJ sent me as well:)  Oh yeah.  

 

Now on to get groceries to my dad and pay my store credit card in person as this one doesn't let you pay it online unless you agree to no paper statements.........  good evening, all, and may your voting dreams come true, too!    (I did ponder getting my father registered to vote again, eh, if I know he'd be lucid enough next time, it'd almost have to be via absentee, how many housebound people, elderly or not, end up without a say?  Hmmm.) 

 

From A Prayer for America
Sunday September 23, 2001
Oprah Winfrey

I believe that when you lose a loved one you gain an angel whose name you know.
Over 6,000 and counting, angels added to the spiritual roster  these past two weeks.

It is my prayer that they will keep us in their sight with a direct line to our hearts.
May we all leave this place and not let one single life have passed in vain.

May we leave this place determined to now use every moment that we yet live to turn up the volume in our own lives, to create deeper meaning, to know what really matters.

What really matters is who you love and how you love

If any of this makes sense :)

talking w/ my dad

So I talk with dad last week, and visit with him, wow, what a great week he's had, I'm thinking.   He's been so lucid, so aware, remembering a lot.   (M laughs a bit when I tell her, "and Doug's getting worse?" "Um, yeah, maybe, honey, but in small ways right now, nothing really worrisome.")

I tell him that I won't come by on Sunday, that M is in a feis and where it'll be, which is the opposite direction from his house, and a distance away.   I would come by on Saturday.   Friday exhausted me, I suppose, or the week, or the combination.   M was still sleeping, Daisy was comfy after our brisk walk, I went back to sleep, to Mom calling me, then Doug, but ultimately, slept until about 12:30.   Wow, very rare indeed.   Apparently M had been awake earlier but stayed in her room reading and such, letting me sleep until she smelled the soy sausages I was making, so we got some for her, too, toasting the weekend with some egg nog I'd found.  (Neither of us like the feel of corn syrup in our egg nog so this was a tough find.)    Ahhh, the afternoon gorgeous -- what could be better than a November Saturday afternoon?   I hope Daisy enjoyed that walk as much as I did:)   Okay, add autumn temperatures and not winter temperatures, and we have it made.   Time kept going so fast for how slow we relaxingly moved........   chatting with BJ and other friends, M doing research for homework, other stuff.   No time to visit Dad properly AND get to the ceili that night.

(Side note -- Frank -- a ceili is a dance, and a ceili is also a TYPE of dance.   The dance itself that's called a ceili is typically full of both ceili dances and set dances of Irish "folk" dances, so to speak.  This particular one had NO set dances, surprisingly, albeit great live music, food!, dancing and more music, and general fun geared to a beginner level.   Some of my favorite ceili's include some faster, more advanced level set dances, but I don't get too picky really if it's fun.)

I couldn't reach my father -- his cell phone is on vibrate.   I cannot figure out how to get this new one of his to ring, not vibrate.  I can turn off the vibrate, but not turn on a ring.   Apparently, we'll have to get M to do it, lol.  (It's a Nextel, and they don't make much sense to me.)   Dad finally calls me, "Were you coming by today?"  I'm relieved.   I think of years ago when we'd go hiking on such days as this, how he "taught me" as we'd say, "the beauty in a tree."   Well, he shared it, as did others, and I love it today.   (I would have loved camping ah well, another weekend.)   We chatted a while, him seeming to understand fully that I wasn't coming until Monday now, he'd need the newspapers and trash taken out to the curb at a minimum.   Talked yet again of my mother's families heart history, like we did my last visit to his place, ironically, and other things.   A good talk, and I felt better for I'd actually wanted to see him that day.  

Sunday at the feis, in the chaotic gymnasium full of bouncing noise, I get voicemail messages on my cell from Dad, who can't hear me call him back, "I thought you were coming today, it's Sunday."   Oy!  "I dn't have any food."   Ha, he does and I know it:)  Just perhaps not what he wants, but I don't feel guilty, I can't fall for that, it's not true.

My boss asks me today how things are.   He's been helping care for his dad lately, but he meant in terms of my mother and the ER trip.   We talk a bit, he tells me to do whatever I need to do, which is great:)   I let him talk a bit, too, and I tell him that we're in the sandwich generation.   "I've never thought of that before."   He's younger, in his late 30's, this is still new to him.  

Today, Dad calls, today he remembers, it's today I'm coming:)   Except he wants vermouth.   Um, no dad, I'm not bringing that for you, besides, it's time off of work for me to come, I won't spend my vacation time bringing you alcohol.  

M calls, "Mom, don't wash my polos yet."   She means these fleece-like wraps that go around a horses ankles.   "Why?"  "I'll explain everything later."   "Don't you have a riding lesson?"  (My mother pays for those, thankfully.)   I don't know why my child thinks I'd have had time wash her polos between when she called and, well, tonight when M would see me.  LOL.  

Off to bring in mail, take out recycling and trash, and chat for a bit.   Dag, running short on time for groceries, too............   sigh!  I'll figure it out.  But,no booze.

 

Tags: elderly, dementia